Supporters of ousted Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide called for a third day of demonstrations to demand his return today and hurled rocks at passing cars on streets littered with debris and overturned vehicles in the capital Port-au-Prince.

Gerard Latortue, the man chosen to lead Haiti out of political and social turmoil, arrived in Port-au-Prince to begin the arduous task of building a transitional government and eventually organising elections.

Rebels were within 25 miles of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince today, as militants loyal to President Jean-Bertrand Aristide torched barricades, hijacked cars and looted the city’s only operating hospital.

REBELS set their sights on the rest of Haiti yesterday after swooping in to take the country’s second-largest city in an escalation of a bloody rebellion against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide.